# Phi-4 Mini vs Qwen3.5 Plus

> Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.9 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 6.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/phi-4-mini-vs-qwen3-5-plus
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Phi-4 Mini scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 Plus in 2 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5 Plus leads 46.0 to 25.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 23.5% for Phi-4 Mini and 10.7% for Qwen3.5 Plus.
- Phi-4 Mini is cheaper at $0.075 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.40 for Qwen3.5 Plus.
- Qwen3.5 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
- Phi-4 Mini has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 42.9 |
| Rank | 283 | 106 |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.075 | $0.40 |
| Output $/M | $0.30 | $2.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Phi-4 Mini: 28.1 (#317)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 10.8% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 621.92 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.5 Plus: —

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 0.54 |

## Reasoning

- Phi-4 Mini: 22.4 (#195)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 32.8 (#74)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 22% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 17% |
| DTBench | — | 80.5% |
| LMCA | — | 36.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 146.78 |

## Math

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 49.6 (#61)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 86.7% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 21% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 2.1% |

## Knowledge

- Phi-4 Mini: 25.3 (#262)
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 46.0 (#83)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 23.5% | 10.7% |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 84.8% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 25.4% |

## Long Context

- Phi-4 Mini: —
- Qwen3.5 Plus: 43.0 (#113)

| Benchmark | Phi-4 Mini | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| CL-bench | — | 19.8% |
| CL-bench Life | — | 12.4% |

## FAQ

### Is Phi-4 Mini better than Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.9 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Phi-4 Mini costs 6.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Phi-4 Mini or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Phi-4 Mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 Plus lists at $0.40 and $2.40.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Phi-4 Mini and Qwen3.5 Plus share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Phi-4 Mini has 3 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Plus has 15.